Thanks to all who responded to my earlier post about U.S.S. Marblehead.
She did indeed survive to do her part in the war, and I learned about
a valuable new resource online at www.uss-salem.org. Now, for a trip 136
years into the past.

Saturday afternoon, while browsing the shelves at my local used book
store, I came across a copy of William C. Davis’ _Duel Between the First
Ironclads_ (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company 1975). The
following appears on pages 69-70:

This left the Cumberland. Just nine years old, she had
at one time been a magnificent forty-four-gun screw
frigate, the flagship of Commodore Joseph Smith’s
Mediterranean squadron. and of the African squadron
as well. In 1856 she had been “razeed”-cut down a
deck, making her into a sloop of war mounting
twenty-four guns, twenty-two 9-inch smoothbores, one
10-inch smoothbore, and one formidable 70-pounder
rifle. Serving as the flagship of the Home Squadron in
1860, Cumberland cruised off Veracruz until early
1861, when threats of war at home called her back to
Hampton Roads. Anchored off Norfolk at the suggestion
of officers who later went over to the Confederacy,
she was intended to play a part in blocking up the
Elizabeth River to prevent herself and other valuable
ships, such as the Merrimack, from getting out. In the
panic to evacuate the navy yard in April, she was
saved from the torch and taken across Hampton Roads
to anchor near Fort Monroe. There followed a brief
refitting trip to the North, and subsequently
participation in the Hatteras Inlet operations, where
she was reputedly the last American frigate to go into
battle under sail. Then it was back to Hampton Roads,
in November 1861, to spend the following winter
blockading off the mouth of the James River.

My question is: Why was the Cumberland converted from a forty-four
gun screw frigate into a sailing sloop of war mounting twenty-four
guns, especially given the fact that in 1862 she was only nine-years
old? Thanks in advance, Ed.

Edward Wittenberg
ewitten507@aol.com